Rural Missouri - October 2021 - 13
Where the
Wild Things
Are
Carving imagination to life with pumpkins
photo courtesy Mike Brown/MB Creative Studio
These are just a few of pumpkin carver Mike Brown's creations. A design architect by trade, Mike spends many of his extra hours in the fall months
carving 3D pumpkins for corporate events and large parties.
carve a potato or squash or even dabble with creating
clay fi gures to relax, Mike doesn't usually begin sculpting
pumpkins until late August or September. Whenever possible,
he tries buying the fall fruit from farmers who live in
the area.
Once he began sculpting pumpkins, Mike
admits he became obsessed by it all. " I'd start
carving after family went to bed and I'd carve
for hours. But once you start, it's really hard
to fi nd a stopping point because pumpkins don't
last forever. "
To pause in the middle of a carving Mike chills
the pumpkins, often placing a damp cloth over the
face to keep the surface moist.
Facebook and in 2016 his shares paid off. His work was
noticed by Food Network and they contacted him to ask for
an audition video. That led the architect to join the seventh
season of the show " Halloween Wars, " a reality competition
featuring six teams that compete by creating spooky but
fun holiday themed work. The winning team - a sugar
artist, baker and carver - split a sweet $50,000 after
fi ve very competitive episodes.
Springfield
Like most artists, Mike has tried every carving
tool available but fi nds pottery tools and homemade
carving tools work best. Need to smooth the skin down a
bit? Get out a household scouring pad. " Some of the best
things to work with are things you probably already have, "
says Mike.
Mike began sharing his work on Instagram and
" When I was selected to go on the show I had
no expectations of winning, " Mike says. " But our
team, Team Ghoul'd, won. It still seems like a
dream some days. "
The Missourian was invited back to join a
new team for the ninth season of the reality
show but the team didn't win that season.
In 2018, Mike was invited to help transform
a 2,077-pound pumpkin from the Elk Grove Giant Pumpkin
Festival held in California. Their job? To transform the
behemoth fruit into the world's heaviest jack-o'-lantern,
which they did.
" It took us about 24 hours to carve a face into the
OCTOBER 2021 | RURALMISSOURI.COOP 13
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Rural Missouri - October 2021
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Rural Missouri - October 2021
Contents
Rural Missouri - October 2021 - Cover1
Rural Missouri - October 2021 - Cover2
Rural Missouri - October 2021 - Contents
Rural Missouri - October 2021 - 4
Rural Missouri - October 2021 - 5
Rural Missouri - October 2021 - 6
Rural Missouri - October 2021 - 7
Rural Missouri - October 2021 - 8
Rural Missouri - October 2021 - 9
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Rural Missouri - October 2021 - Cover3
Rural Missouri - October 2021 - Cover4
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